Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old Madrid resident whose eviction became a rallying point for protests over Spain’s housing crisis, has died, the city’s tenants’ union said.
Her eviction prompted demonstrations across Spain in recent weeks. In Madrid, activists set up a protest camp in Puerta del Sol, one of the capital’s main squares, calling for action on the housing crisis and rising rents.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called an early election for November 29 after the protests and parliament’s rejection last week of decrees intended to curb evictions and rent pressures. Reuters said Sánchez was seeking to put housing at the center of the political debate amid criticism over his government’s handling of a migration crisis in Ceuta and corruption cases involving his Socialist Party and family.
Spain’s territorial policy minister, Ángel Víctor Torres, said Abascal had become a symbol of the difficulties many families, older people and young people face in finding a home or keeping one. The Madrid tenants’ union announced her death.